An important aspect of University teaching is to promote deeper learning by ensuring students have good exposure to problems they will encounter in their working life. While it is not possible to reproduce every situation that will occur in an area of employment, it is possible to provide students with experience from which they can utilise principles and approaches in order to gain the necessary skills to address whatever scenario may arise. This paper looks at the nature of studio-based teaching and the pedagogy that supports it, through examining two case studies as a catalyst for exploring real-world projects. It is through the discussion of aspects such as real-world clients, user involvement, sequencing and integration that the success of studio-based teaching in IT can be revealed.1